An Early Years Perspective: OFSTED: reform required

This message adds to the blog that Mike Aylen wrote in April, when he commented on current concerns about Ofsted.  They are not new.  Early years provision has been persistently misunderstood and poorly served by Ofsted inspections.

Early Years is a complex phase, involving provision in the private and voluntary sector as well as a decreasing number of maintained nursery schools.  It also includes the reception class in every primary school.  Research commissioned by the Froebel Trust, led by Dr. Susana Castro-Kemp of the Institute of Education at UCL, reported in May 2022 that “interactions with Ofsted inspectors are characterised by a power imbalance” (1).

She quotes findings from a Nursery World survey which show grave failures in the Ofsted inspection process (2). Although there is general agreement that inspections are necessary, most managers refer to a culture of fear in the current system.  It is the case that children’s outcomes are closely associated with the socio-economic level of the neighbourhood and the amount of support within each family.  Although it is helpful that inspections acknowledge this, there is no formal recognition that it has an impact on children’s development and their preparedness for transition to school.  The research team’s analysis of nearly 200 inspection reports showed an over-reliance on literacy and numeracy activities and outcomes, rather than indicators of play-based engagement, which are arguably better markers of healthy development and learning in the early years (3,4).

The analysis of the reports also showed inconsistencies in inspectors’ understanding of what each quality indicator refers to: statements appear to have been taken from the inspectors’ manual and pasted inconsistently against various criteria.  Castro-Kemp and her team acknowledge that no-one – not even Ofsted – can say that outcomes improve solely because of provision, but assessing and promoting good practice in a constructive and empathetic way makes it much more likely to happen.  As the HMI leading one of the first Ofsted inspections (involving eight inspectors for a week) said to the staff of the primary school involved: “If you people don’t feel at the end of this inspection that you have had the best professional development in your lives for free, WE will have failed…”  

Those were the days!

References:

1. Castro-Kemp, S. (2023) Does Ofsted value play and creativity in early education? Froebel Trust. https://www.froebel.org.uk/research-library/froebel-meets-ofsted-what-makes-an-outstanding-nursery

2. Castro-Kemp, S., (2022) The power imbalance between Ofsted inspectors and providers needs to go Froebel Trust.  https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/opinion/article/the-power-imbalance-between-ofsted-inspectors-and-providers-needs-to-go. 

3. Vitiello V. E. et al (2012) Variation children’s classroom engagement throughout a day in preschool: relations to classroom and child factors Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 27(2), 210 – 220.

4. Williford A. P. et al, (2013) Children’s engagement within the pre-school classroom and their development of self-regulation Early Education and Development 24(2), 162 – 187.